Phew, that was close. That must be the reaction of the Australia solar industry, and local and international renewable investors, after a result that puts the Labor government within touching distance of a small majority or at least a workable minority government.

The re-election of Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk in Saturday’s nail-biting poll will guarantee the medium-term future of the solar industry in Australia, along with several large-scale wind and hybrid projects, and some key storage installations.

It will also likely have a bearing on federal politics too, given that the Queensland government is unlikely to approve a National Energy Guarantee that seeks to choke the level of wind and solar that can be added to the national grid, or reinforces the power of the energy incumbents.

Palaszczuk went to the election with a slender lead in opinion polls, but with 80 per cent of the vote counted on Sunday, was predicted to win 48 seats. She needs 47 to govern in her own right.

The result, along with a stronger showing from The Greens, appears a repudiation of coal-first policies of the LNP and One Nation, which voters seemed to understand would result in higher prices as well as being disastrous for the environment.

The idea, keenly promoted by the likes of Coalition MPs Matt Canavan and George Christensen, was plain stupid – as even the mostly fossil fuel-based energy body admitted. It made no economic or environmental sense.

What will likely happen in its stead is the creation of a third government-owned generation company, based around renewables and dispatchable power, that will “compete” with the two big coal-dominated companies Stanwell and CS Energy.

It remains to be seen how that changes the bidding in the wholesale markets. Queensland has recently had comparative low wholesale prices, but only because the state-owned generators were instructed to bid low, rather than high, as has been their want, and ability, in a tightly controlled market.

And, of course, it also puts a further very big questions about the future of the Adani coal mine. Palaszczuk’s rejection of government funding might have been more convincing had it been made on the economics and environmental impacts, rather than concerns over potential conflicts of interest, but it may have finally done for the idea in any case.

What is certain is the Queensland will continue to become the solar state.

It already has more than 1.8GW of rooftop solar, and over the next 12 months will add some 2GW of large-scale solar – courtesy of a series of federal grants, state government contracts, and the falling price of the technology.

The Australian Solar Council, now known as the Smart Energy Council, notably funded numerous advertisements against the LNP policy in an unprecedented entry into election politics.

Most interesting will be the much delayed opening of the Lakeland solar and storage project put together by Conergy – it will be the first such grid-connected project in Australia, and the opening of the two big solar farms contracted by the corporate sector.

Zinc refiner Sun Metals is also building the first large-scale solar farm (116) to meet some of its energy needs, and this is being followed by the Emerald solar farm being contracted by Telstra.

Of more interest will be what follows: potentially the huge Kennedy wind-solar-storage park that could amount to 1200MW of “dispatchable renewables”, and the solar and pumped hydro storage hybrid plant planned for the former Kidston gold mine.

The first 50MW solar stage is nearly complete.

And there could be a solar thermal and storage plant for Townsville, and numerous other solar farms paired with battery storage.

Queensland was the first of four states that will go to the polls in the next 12 months and three of them – Queensland, South Australia and Victoria – have ambitious renewable energy policies that, in the absence of any federal initiative, are critical to the future of renewables in Australia.

Victoria has legislated a 40 per cent renewable energy target by 2025, and is holding a 650MW renewable energy auction, while South Australia, which goes to the polls in March, is already at 50 per cent but aiming to go higher.

Here’s hoping they have a workable majority and now totally reject any support for fossil fuels in their state, not try to play both sides.
Time to tell Adani to F off.

solarguy

My sentiments exactly.

Joe

And remember that Premier Annastacia vowed to veto any NAIF funny business for Adani’s railway if she won the election…three cheers for Premier Annastacia!
Now the problem is Gina. She wants the Galilee opened up. She wanted her very, very good friend Bananabee to take the ‘performance bonus’ of $40,000. Over to Gina now to visit her very good friend Matteo Coalavan and get some of that NAIF railways money happening…that spare $40,000 now lying around unclaimed might just come in handy?

Wilma

Google is paying 97$ per hour,with weekly payouts.You can also avail this.
On tuesday I got a great new Land Rover Range Rover from having earned $11752 this last four weeks..with-out any doubt it’s the most-comfortable job I have ever done .. It sounds unbelievable but you wont forgive yourself if you don’t check itGoogleNetJobsTopWorkFromHome……..

nakedChimp

Gina would be wiser to find lithium, cobalt and other stuff for battery production. Way more future proof..

Hettie

Indeed. We have stacks of it, but it seems old Lang didn’t have the foresight to buy the land it’s under.
Or did he? Just asked Dr Google.
Bulk of Australian lithium 250 km south of Perth
All up over 1000 gigatonnes. That’s a lot of batteries.

wideEyedPupil

If lithium ion stays in the box seat, there’s no certainty of that.

Roger Brown

B Joyce has some problems with his daughter , she borrowed the election ute and went to Tamworth to mention ( loudly ) the pregnant staffer of BJ’s office !

Hettie

Oh dear. Lol.
The local press are maintainig strict silence about his tomcatting. Which seems inappropriate, given that he made such a fuss about the sanctity of marriage. Just not his own.

Joe

All that Bananabee wants to talk about is…death threats! Just desperate stuff chasing…. the ‘sympathy vote’.

Roger Brown

BJ’s 5th child in February 2018 , they won’t be able to suppress that FACT ! Watch out for a Terror plot from the LNP in February ?

Hettie

You never know. If by some miracle BJ falls on Saturday, and KK gets up on the 16th, they might be defeated on the floor of the House by then .
The citizenship declarations are due on Monday, and then it will all hit the fan.
Interesting times.

Steve, rob, Kev, thank you all for being respectful human beings.
It is really good to know that there are thoughtful men around who will call that casual sexism out.
Good work.
Joe too, even though you didn’t weigh in on this one, I count you as a friend. You are always supportive when I get grumpy.

rob

you are more than welcome Hettie,,,,,,,,,have a look at what the prat just posted to me! this is getting way way out of hand!

Hettie

Altogether nasty. He won’t allow me…..FFS.
And I do agree, its time to move on. I want to spit that taste out of my mouth

solarguy

Well you left the mother of all tastes of shit in my mouth, with the BS you have gone on with. But you have the hide to say that I’m nasty F…. OFF you weak head!

solarguy

You smug little bastard you get of on this shit as small minds always do. My only hope is that somebody breaks you face, because you will really deserve it like a rabid dog, that bites the hand that feeds it.

rob

off not of …………you are like the eveready battery a gift that keeps on giving.

You shouldn’t drink before you post!

solarguy

A typo, so now I’m an alco. As I said to you before you’re a dickhead get used to the idea and seek some help.

rob

Heaps of deleted comments in this thread……was it you solarBOY?

solarguy

Hettie, there is clearly something wrong with you’re mentality, ( pack mentality) clearly obvious now. I only hope you can find some credibility and some integrity in you’re sad, sad existence!

solarguy

Well she is nothing like trivial, but I think your being trivial!

rob

here we go…… I will descend to your level just for a moment…….If your insecurities and anger and violent behaviour enemate from your “closet” I know young men that can help you out…….shhhhhhh don’t tell the wife!

rob

I was yelling! I’m in my 60’s . That sort of comment was considered OK then but the world has definitely moved on and the subjectivism of women’s bodies is not cool in any way!

Kevfromspace

Thank you Rob for standing up for basic human decency.

solarguy

Never mentioned her body mate!

rob

You are definitely no mate of mine………keep your slimy comments for your facebook page….. this is supposed to be a serious informative site!

rob

liked by “Mal Goon Chew” ….you might get lucky yet!

Mal Goon Chew

Excuse me Rob. What’s that supposed to mean?

rob

you liked a comment from a racist, sexist, ageist, homophobe …….your name suggest you are non white and probably anti ONE NATION …..SOLARboy is all of the above…… that is what it means!…….like him .like bush pigs, misogynists and [email protected]@ts……He is a vile human being…..just pointing you in a correct educated Aussie way!

Mal Goon Chew

Hahaha!!! The real Rob raises it’s ugly head. You’re a real DH Rob. And yes I don’t like One Nation. In the Qld election they pushed for a new coal fired power station to be built in North Qld. How stupid is that? And they’re a bunch of bigots.

rob

Dick head if you follow “solar boys ” comments

rob

he is a racist, sexist,ageist…….wanker……yet you think he is so cool! WTF! Good luck to you in our enlightened society!

Hettie

That yelling was entirely justified.

solarguy

Hettie are you for real. Has the world gone completely mad. By saying that someone of any sex is good looking does not infer that their capability is less or to being a sexual object. And I certainly didn’t infer that, by saying the QLD Premier was good looking.

If you found some male in a high position attractive, I would not agree with anyone, that you were being sexist. Think about that!

And if you find some bloke attractive, do you automatically think to yourself, he must be shit at his job or others would think that’s what you thinking or inferring!

Hettie

You just don’t get it, do you.
Yes I am for real, as are the *men* who have posted here to say that such remarks are at best irrelevant and in any case demeaning.

solarguy

But you didn’t answer my questions Hettie. Is it that you can’t or won’t, because there is some sense to what I’ve said above. Some people are becoming way to sensitive over nothing. Sure it was irrelevant to add the comment that she was good looking, but I assure you I’m not a sexist guy. My lovely wife, my daughter in law and some female friends don’t consider what I said was in any way sexists. As for demeaning her, that’s just ridiculous. I have the highest respect for the women!

You and the other guy want to put a label on me and that’s just plain wrong.

Now lets move on from here shall we.

Hettie

I did answer. If you chose not to hear, it’s because you don’t want to, and frankly, I can’t be bothered. Ask all those women you say you respect. Show them your comment, when they are all together, and ask them as a group.

solarguy

I did show them my comment as I already told you. Now even my niece just a half hour ago. And you know what she said?

“Those people want to get a life and stop being so stupid”

Hettie

Absolute last thing I will say. You are trying to force me to agree with you. I will not.

solarguy

I’m not forcing you into anything. But I WILL NOT ALLOW YOU OR ANYONE ELSE, to put an unjustified label on me, over such an innocent comment and I won’t wear such labels when it’s completely untrue and completely unfair. What the hell are you thinking.

Hettie

I’m thinking of a wise saying that you might like to take note of.
When you’re in a hole, stop digging.

solarguy

Surely you have take you’re own advise. I didn’t start this BS you and he did. And I hold the right to defend myself.

rob

Did you show them the vile comments you made about me? I think not!

rob

NO RESPONSE…..HMMMMMM I wonder why?

rob

YOUR POOR NEICE…….. was she EDUCIMATED BY YOU AND YOURS?

rob

Poor nieces pooh! I’d run a mile if I was her…………”IS SHE A GOOD LOOKING SHEILA?”

rob

Hettie ,seriously don’t bother, you should have seen what he wrote about me yesterday…..before he promptly deleted it! He is simply a sexist pig and will never change …will you SOLARGUY ?

solarguy

You’re a trouble making SOB and you’re a coward, you twisted control freak. You deleted the comment not me.

I’ve met dick heads like you before, but it always gave me the satisfaction to show them up for what they were. You’re hiding behind a key board, you wouldn’t have the courage to say anything to my face if you had the chance, because if you ever did, you horrible, nasty little man, I’d smack your laughing gear.

You use abuse this forum to bolster your flagging ego. Shame on you!

Of course you will delete this too, won’t you gutless!

rob

I deleted absolutely nothing! perhaps the moderator did!
How pray tell can I delete your comments? it is impossible! But I am more than HAPPY to leave this here so the whole posting community can see who and what you are!
! sexist
2 threatening violence
3 gutter style name calling
4 I would gladly call you out face to face any time you like and have you charged with assault.
5 If you are indeed a “solarman” I feel very sorry for any customers you may have and indeed your family!

solarguy

But you accused me of deleting my comment, if it is impossible, why did you accuse me of that? Your a liar and I find you completely contemptuous, a coward and a gutter snipe, that’s all you are. Perhaps you should see a doctor to sort out your issues, before somebody close to you objects to you’re rantings and renders you brown bread…………………… but I strongly suggest that won’t happen because you won’t have the guts to say anything to someone close by will you.

Now PISS OFF MORON!

rob

deeeerrrrr anyone can delete their own comments but no one else can except the moderator of the page.

You are by definition a Thug and Bully….I actually feel very sorry for you!

solarguy

It’s on the record tosser that you accused me of deleting that. Feel sorry for yourself moron!

Hettie

He has just had another spray.
Is it time to ask the moderator to block him?

solarguy

Perhaps it’s time we all called this BS quits. You can ask the mod all you like to block or me ask him to block you. But as I said before, NOBODY WILL PUT A LABEL LIKE THAT ON ME, I WON’T ACCEPT IT NO BLOODY WAY.

You pair wanted a fight and you got one, I do not let anyone tell me black is white. Your both behaving like geese and I will never handle that./

rob

several at me as well….Na just let him rave on…….He is simply showing himself to be an absolute fool.

solarguy

LOL, You’re the ones not letting this go, but stuff you both, your the fools.

rob

do you not ever LEARN……. it is you’re

rob

several at me too…..LOL …….NO ,NO BLOCKING REQUIRED! He is simply showing himself to be a real fool, probably a repressed (ie not out) Homosexual with a load of pent up anger and anxiety!

You admit yourself your comment regarding the new premier of QLD was irrelevant (SHE IS A GOOD LOOKING SHEILA”). There is no sense at ALL in your 1950 view of Australian Women…….. Get an education and a life……Do you understand even a tad that you are so far off base?

rob

All your female rellies are to scared of the tyrant you are to speak the truth!

rob

Go away you pathetic excuse for a human being! I for one have had enough of your SEXIST, AGEIST and disgusting language! This is a site for serious discussion of renewable energy…….NOT A SITE FOR ONE NATION MORONS. get an education and a real life…..I so pity any women associated with you!

rob

You called her a good looking “sheila” WTF……..When were you born? She isn’t your latest wank material in some sleazy magazine…. She will be the PREMIER of QLD …..some respect?

solarguy

Your entitled to you opinion even if your wrong. If I were being sexist, I would have made a demeaning comment suggesting incompetence to do with her sex and clearly I didn’t do that. Annastacia’s happens to be the most successful female in Australian politics.

Was it necessary to say she is a good looking sheila, well no it wasn’t really, but she also happens to be a good looker. So get over it.

rob

you’re…………not your……..Where pray tell were you edumicated? As to ” sheila”……..I haven’t heard that word used by any adult (apart from one nation voters) in 40 years……you need to do some serious thinking about the way you should respect all women! Simply ask yourself would you say the same thing if she was a male? My guess is NO! Q.E.D YOUR COMMENT WAS SEXIST and totally inappropriate.

solarguy

What an anally retentive, horrible and petty little man you are.

You haven’t heard that word for 40yrs because you have been living under a rock, you self righteous, sensitive bloody coward.

YOU’RE lower than shark shit, now PISS OFF!

rob

Where is the rest of the comment that you originally posted?

You may have edited it…….but I have the original!

Your vitriol and highly offensive comment (the original one) was extraordinarily rude……..not are you only SEXIST but now add AGEIST to the list.

You may be a regular comment provider on the page, but your swearing and cursing at me shows who you really are.

Congratulations!

rob

solarguy

What an anally retentive, horrible and petty little man you are.
You haven’t heard that word for 40yrs because you have been living under a rock, you self righteous, sensitive bloody coward.
YOU’RE lower than shark shit, now PISS OFF!

Joe

Steady on Rob, my sister in law’s name is Sheila and her name is spoken everyday.

rob

Ha Ha!

rob

Please say hello to “your” Sheila from me…….both you and I know my comment was not directed at women named Sheila……but the derogatory way it was used by “solarboy”

rob

Got a bit shy did we solarguy?

Deleted your and hence my comments…..hope you learnt something!

Hettie

He can’t get the right you’re, but uses the subjunctive “were” correctly. Must have been awake at least some of the time.
Needs to stay awake and keep up with what is acceptable.
Do you call gay men poofters, Solarguy?

Kevfromspace

I never thought we’d see the like of Don Burke in a RenewEconomy thread.

solarguy

Really Kev, now ain’t that going a bit too far!

rob

No further than you went! Plus at least he was witty!

rob

where are all your other abusive, harassing and violent comments gone?

rob

YOU IS THE MAN! SOLARBOY IS so so strong and smart……..HEIL TO “SOLARBOY”

Jason Van Der Velden

This is why i cant stand inaction on this matter, unless it actually gets built, all the legislated ret’s are just empty promises hostage to the will of potential governing coal huggers.

Chris Fraser

I can’t vote in Qld, but congratulations to all of them. Labor did seem the most pragmatic choice.

riley222

If past performance is any indication then Qld is in on the way to be a leading State in the push towards renewables.
Just need some of those big storage projects to get going, and Qld will really show how it can be done. Good news indeed.

rob

You will have a fight on your hands here from us in S.A. ……..LOL

riley222

Rob, you mean a race to the top instead of one to the bottom. Now thats a bit of a competition worth having . Here in NSW we seem to be having ‘ 2 bob each way’, so hopefully you guys will really get the ball rolling. Public goodwill is there, we just need our pollies in NSW to make the decisions which will direct us away from fossil fueled electricity.
Snowy 2.0 , if its a goer, could provide the impetus , and a bit of political cover for the state government.

rob

Snowy 2.0 is a vanity project by Turnbull, uncosted and in all probability won’t be built…….Bad polling made him announce it in a particularly bad week…yet polling is still getting worse……plus you in NSW are stuck with the LNP so no renewables for you sorry! S.A. and QLD have almost the same penetration of household Solar 31% versus 33% but we in S.A have already reached our 2025 emissions targets of 50% renewables and are POWERING ahead……but QLD now has a huge amount of shovel ready projects in line to go. So definitely a RACE TO THE TOP between S.A. and QLD……But we at least aren’t dying from COAL…….That is not a part of our equation……oops sorry Tassy……also going for it with HYDRO……riley222 you need a Labor Government both State and Federal in NSW if you want renewables to bloom!

Hettie

And yet, and yet, in spite of the beetroot, New England has big renewables installations, and getting bigger. Windfarms, solar, storage from Glen Innes to south of Inverell. There’s an article about it in this issue of RE.
And 6 Gw of rooftop solar.

rob

hettie have a look right now at the reneweconomy/NEW widget on the side of every article which shows every type of energy use by state live……S.A. IS CURRENTLY ON APPROX 55% GAS and 45% WIND at 9.45 pm ……..what is it for NSW?

Hettie

Pathetic! NSW, that is.
It’s the gas that’s killing you, of course.
I’m on my phone, not a pc, and have no such widget, only the bar graph at the end of some articles. Will have to look at the pc tomorrow. It’s 11.43 now. Past my bedtime.
Źźzzzzzzz

rob

NIGHT NIGHT

rob

just had a quick squiz at NSW….APPROX 90%BLACK COAL 1-2 % wind…….right now S.A. is pumping out approx 700 Mw to your lousy 150 Mw of wind and your population is 5 times that of ours!

Hettie

That’s a Coalition government for you.
Er, against you. Us.
I do think though that the coal fired stations in SA reached their use by in the past few years, and have been replaced by renewables. NSW most coal clunkers have a few years to run.
Clearly AGL would like to pension Liddell off sooner rather than later, a sentiment that can only grow as summers get hotter and more heat stress failures occur, while renewables get ever less costly.
In a perfect world…….

Joe

Yep, we /NSW are addicted to that little black wonder rock. And now The NSW Nats want to go all in and build a new Coaler. There are no words.

Joe

Continued bad polling for Turnbull. He’ll solve that with another outing in his black leathers and front the cameras to announce ..Snowy 3.0 or Liddell 3.0.

rob

You are definitely a witty man

Joe

…and a Gold Medal…for stupidity….goes to The NSW Nationals. I read a report that The Nats are pressuring Premier Gladys to build…A NEW COALER…in The Hunter, the coal capital of NSW.

RobertO

Hi Joe, Yes some of our pollies are RWNJ at state level. We can only hope that we change to Labour next election. The rebuilding of the stadiums is another infrastructure building program that COALition seem to suffer from.

rob

Sacrilege Roberto …..it is LABOR …lol

Joe

Yep, welcome to ‘COALition NSW’, the knockdown and rebuild State. Communities knocked down to build / rebuild roads & motorways. Stadiums ( including an only 17 years old Olympic Stadium ) knocked down to rebuild ..those same stadiums. Sydney Inner West Rail line knocked down to build…a ‘metro line’ on the same line. Nature – 100 plus year old Fig trees knocked down to rebuild a tramline that was pulled up decades ago. Inner Newcastle where the rail line has been torn up to build a roadway. It all costs BIllions!

RobertO

Hi Riley222, Please, Qld only has household roof solar and one 12 MW wind farm, they are so far behind, even NSW has some wind, some solar but SA now has no coal, lots of wind, and almost as much household solar (and their sun is no where as good as Qld.

Hi Mal Goon Chew both Qld and SA have about the same percentage of households (31% v 33%) with solar. Qld had about 3 times the number of people and better solar resources so yes they are very slow, and as for change yes I agree the foot is hard on the accelerator (but their still in catch up mode and that may last another 6 months or so).

nakedChimp

Mt Emerald is being built as we speak, last week Thursday going by on Palmerston I could see 2 completed windturbines and a couple more ‘stumps’ on that hill. Total is 52 and foundations of at least 2/3rds are done by now, by account of a relative.
There is a oversize convoy each day here now bringing up pieces of them from Cairns via Innisfail.

Then there is another one shovel ready just a tad south of this one, think Kaban is the locality that has been touted (WNW of Ravenshoe).

RobertO

Hi All, Hopefully we will see jobs growing in aussie now (as mining is going fully automatic there will be very few jobs in that area). A RE competive zone may also boost more jobs and given Solar in dropping in price we should see some relief on pricing in the next 5 years (application time + build time for zone, + build time for interconnects, + build time for farms).

Ray Miller

The Qld gov had also a high local content requirement translating to regional jobs in a large area, also seening large turbine equipment landing in local ports very much a significant sign of the new economy.
Then a significant policy of assisting the renters with solar panels. What’s not to like for everyone and the future. The only thing left is a major productivity improvement in buildings and energy services, how about it Anna?

Mark Roest

Besides setting up (or using if it already exists) a good energy audit system that highlights both insulation and passive solar design, you could legislate Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) to finance projects recommended by audits. California had a severe challenge to PACE, and the way it resolved that may help you fend off coal-bent conservatives. The payments are part of the property tax bill, so you can move, and leave the solar, etc. behind, and the buyer picks up the payments. The key is that energy efficiency is the cheapest source of energy, so the payments are less than the money saved.
If you need something much more drastic, I’m advising people who are starting companies to make Bosch Captive Columns (www.CaptiveColumn.com) and Ultra-High-Performance-Concrete (UHPC), with interesting residential applications. The UHPC can be used to make Structural Integrated Panels (SIP) with high insulation value, and it’s just about blast-proof, so good in typhoons, and if done carefully enough, may be good as a fire shelter (many issues to consider in designing that — like oxygen deprivation and heating up the air so it cooks lungs, etc. — so very professional design would be necessary).

Patrick Comerford

The significance of the Queensland Labor victory cannot be overstated. If as all indication point to they achieve a working majority then this will ensure queenslands renewable energy future will be put beyond being wound back or decimated by any future LNP government which undoubtedly there will be in the very far off future sometime.
As Abbort showed unless a change can be put so far beyond the reach of the vested interest cabal and their LNP lackies so that no there is no way they can turn back the clock, then the transition remains vulnerable to attack. This transition will need to be supported by other states voters putting or retaining Labor state governments in office next year to prevent conservatives undermining the transition. Queensland has shown how it an be done.

rob

I surely am hoping so here in S.A. We are definitely the leaders ATM under our LABOR gov……….but we are paying for it with the highest electricity bills in Australia and I believe the World. Should Jay and Tom manage to get across the line I think for either a 4th or 5th term it will be an incredible feat! They have copped so much bad press from Turnbull and little joshy and the main stream media which won’t help! $0.45 per Kw here…..Ouch…… but we still have big plans to further renewables…..Fingers crossed

Hettie

If you SA guys can just get to the point where you can tell the NEM to take a hike, and write your own market rules with 5 min settlement periods and good stuff like that, your power prices should plummet to be amongst the lowest in the world, and wouldn’t that make the fossil fools look sick.

rob

Tom Kouts……. our Energy Minister has stated we are going for 75% and stuff the NEG and the FEDS…..!

Hettie

Go SA, you good things!

rob

hettie please read my above comment!

Hettie

I did.

Hettie

Ah. The way I get it, your latest comment is below, not above.

Chris Drongers

What does 75% mean? 100% for 75% of the time% or some mix of 60/40/0%. A rapid buildout of car charging points would seem to be coming to even out demand and in turn encourage even more renewables to be built and massive changes to electricity market payment and billing systems. Go SA!

rob

chris it simply means S.A. reached its 2025 goal of 50% renewable electricity in 2017, 8 years early and we are motoring along and pushing even harder to reach an even more ambitious target……the feds say we can’t do it, the s.a. Libeleous opposition Party say we can’t do it…..but we are and will! So many projects in the pipeline and big ones at that! We in S.A. have had a guts full of the carping LNP Federally and are going HI-TECH manufacturing and leading the nation by a country mile and intend to stay there! 75% renewables is def not out of the question…..even our steel plants are going green! And on a personal note I have a 10Kw solar system right now but am going 3 phase, building a huge carport the length of my massive driveway and right over the top of my (ex 4 car garage) now my office and installing another 20 to 30 Kw solar system with 3 tesla powerwall batteries. This should almost take my home business off the grid or close to it at a cost of approx $90K. Payback time will be approx 6 years. In case you haven’t got it yet I’m a massive GREENY….LOL

Hettie

Wow. And here’s me all excited because my shiny new 5kw system with no battery looks like wiping out my total power bill, and providing enough credit to cover the full cost of the repayments on the loan.
Then in 4 years it will be all gravy.
Your power usage must be astronomical, Rob!

rob

approx 120Kw per day

neroden

I think “home business” is the key phrase there! Probably uses a lot more energy than just a home!

rob

definitely

Hettie

At least your poles and wires charge would be a tiny fraction of your bill, unlike mine, which was about 48% pre solar, and is now much more than half. It takes just on 11kwh of FIT to pay for it.
But the panels are putting out 15 to the 20 kwh a day when it’s raining, up to 29 when it’s fine all day, and I’m only using 2 to 3.5, now.
They face 4 degrees west of solar north, 24 degree pitch, at 31 deg. latitude, 1000 m above sea level. A little flat for winter perhaps, but if I’m amassing credit in the longer days to cover the shortfall in the shorter days, I’m a happy camper.
What do you use all that power on? 3 olympic swimming pools???

Chris Fraser

You could have a 20 kL pool, or an EV, and still put out a FiT.

Joe

Keep your excitement going young Hettie. Things are looking up for you, yes.

Joe

Rob, didn’t you know that you can’t make steel from wind or solar power. I mean the Abbott told us so first and now the Turnbull told us so from the Bluescope Steelworks in Wollongong. Someone needs to give the Sanjeev and his Liberty Steel the bad news…steel from wind / solar ..that just won’t work!

rob

well someone is right….LOL and it isn’t the COALition!

Joe

Only 75%?…Energetic Tom needs to lift his ambition. The NEG and The Feds ( COALition ) will be gone after The Bennelong by- election when Kristina aces the ex-tennis champ.

rob

joe please don’t get my hopes up!…….

Hettie

The election is not until mid March. After the worst of the heat.
Look forward to coal and gas plants failing, and Elon’s baby saving the day. Probably multiple times over the summer.
Do you think the punters will vore accordingly, Rob?

rob

Hoping so hettie! The Libs in S.A……..I can’t name one?……..So here’s hoping a March Labor win!

Joe

…the Marshall…but he asks everyone to vote Labor, ha, ha, ha.

rob

loving your witty responses!

Joe

…the 5 mins…its coming…..In 2021!

Miles Harding

Good point.
This looks like a modelling job to determine when the interconnectors cease to provide SA any value as more local storage and backup is built.

Cutting early would allow SA to transtorm their market without the drag caused by incumbents’ vested interests.

Hettie

Exactly. You still have way too much dependence on gas (yes I know, NSW and coal, but is that my fault?), but the gas plants are much newer than the coal clunkers, and if I read the Cooma guy correctly, that should make conversion to the 5 minute settlement periods easier.
Once that is in place, the gas bandits won’t be able to game the system so much, and your prices will plummet.

Rob G

I would like South Australians to be frustrated by the constant bagging the Federal government has dished out and prevent a Liberal government coming to power. By all accounts SA is going great guns – they really could be Australia’s Silicon Valley – a leader in techs and modern manufacturing. I’d hate to see them go backwards with the Libs. They are lucky to have such visionaries with Weatherill and Co. Dan Andrews in of a similar ilk.

rob

S.A. is FURIOUS and has simply made us go harder and faster!

rob

Yet Dan at last fridays Energy Ministers meeting voted to get the NEG rolling! Piss poor of him

JIm

No party in SA is going to prosper using a nakedly anti-renewables line. Xenophon and the Libs will be very careful what they say. Labor will not alter course.

rob

They won’t be able to control themselves…..Liberals always shot themselves in the FOOT or Head……and the xenophone is simply LNP LITE ……a weather vane!

Joe

Ah yes, weatherwane Nicky. He was the dude with support from senators Madigan, Day & Leyonhjelm that got this National Wind Farm Commission up and running in a bid to kill off Wind power industry.

riley222

Rob, 45c , here on the glorious Central Coast we pay 59c peak, 2 till 8 pm weekdays. Thank goodness most of our power comes from coal to keep the costs to a minimum.

I’m actually looking forward to my first post solar installation bill.
They can just go and get stuffed.

rob

@59c I would have gone off grid years ago…..that’s extortion

Hettie

Have a look at other retailers. And as you now have solar, you would almost certainly be better off having all day usage tarrif.
Be aware too, that you probably won’t get any FIT for the first few weeks while the rapacious network owners get their paperwork sorted out. That’s their excuse, even if no one believes it.
Powershop are good, and have a nifty phone app that lets you buy power on line, in advance, in portions that suit your budget, and if you have a smart meter , each day you get a read out of the previous day’s usage in half hour bar graph format. The whole history is kept and accessible. I don’t much like the pc screens. FIT is shown as a heat map, visually very confusing.
However, I’m told that Energy Locals may be a better deal. Not sure.
Am sure that unless you shop around you are likely to pay too much and get a miserable FIT.
So do your homework!

riley222

thanks Hettie, I’m kinda waiting for the bill, if they really piss me off I think I’ll do what my brother did, get a Powerwall. I’m at that stage of being pissed off, even though I like to be logical its got to that stage, they really can get stuffed.

Hettie

Knowledge is power.
To give you an idea of what you could be able to do, with Powershop, I get 12.8 cents per kwh.
Buying online, at the
cheapest rate, I pay 26.21 cents per kwh, and 139.99 cents per day supply. I usually buy every 2 weeks, and stay 2 weeks ahead.
If you decide to switch to them, let me know, because if I refer you to them we both get $75 credit.
But shop around. You may reconsider your battery decision if you can get a better deal than it sounds like you are getting now.

Miles Harding

The answer is to build stuff. Once the various plant is in place, the LNP sock puppets have a much more difficult time winding the clock back without getting sued.

wideEyedPupil

You aren’t paying for the transition with higher energy bills. The wind farms came to SA because you already had such high wholesale energy costs. And now, as Ross Garnaut recently pointed out in a public lecture, SA wholesale energy is often cheaper than the eastern states, while ten years ago it averaged double their prices. Most of SA wholesale energy woes are connected to the gas cabal (gentailers) gaming the bid/settle market which can drive the price to the $14,000/MWh ceiling.

Expect battery storage, CST with thermal storage, government contracting for ample standby gas generation and the (eventual) shift to 5 minute bids and settling in the short term market to bring wholesale costs down. This will benefit large (industrial/manufacturing) electricity users, and if retailers pass the falling prices on, everybody else too, even household consumers.

AB

This is what we were hoping for, some continuity. I believe that large proportion of these projects will be built within the next 2 years. Especially when the storage component works come the next election cycle RE’s will be entrenched to point where the LNP couldn’t seriously policy against them.

If the the Vics and SA can hold their nerve and vote for renewable then it would send a signal so loud to Feds that they couldn’t ignore. But then again….

nakedChimp

They will keep ignoring.

Radbug

On the p/p booth, I asked Tracey Davis whether the “outing” of Anna P.’s partner was the LNP’s work. She firmly replied that it wasn’t. I believe her. No, I think that it was a false flag job intended to provide some cover to Anna as she did a 180 degree reversal regarding her position on the NAIF loan. I suspect that this was because Peel Street did its sums and reckoned that a veto would win more votes than it lost. It certainly won my vote. ps. I’m still waiting for Chermside Shoppingtown to sport a solar roof.

Chris Fraser

And thus stole the Green’s thunder … I wish NSW Labor and NSW Coalition would compete for my vote like this ….

Radbug

There is a space in SE QLD for the “Liberal Environment Party”, however, the old Liberal Party has been so eviscerated by the Nationals inside the LNP that I doubt that SE QLD Liberals have the intellectual resources to do the job. Anyhow, there’ll be a lot of sound and fury coming out of the LNP in the forthcoming four years, not forgetting, of course, that Malcolm (I’m a strong leader!) Turnbull will be going to the polls right in the middle of it all!

Radbug

I worked for Alison King in Maiwar. The poor girl cried when the results came in during the party party. I can’t stand it when a lady cries. She’s won my heart. I shall definitely be working for her next time! … and there WILL be a next time!

wideEyedPupil

Amazing effort by Michael Berkman. Both read as good candidates on paper, but we need Greens MPs to make ALP accountable on almost everything these days. Neoliberal thinking has been internalised by too many in ALP, including some union leaders and ex-union leader MPs. Then there’s those that are just straight out in it for their own nest feathering and corrupt as hell like Marn Ferguson.

Ian

Annastacia needs to know that it was the issues of Adani and renewables that put her back in the drivers seat. So, she better not let us down.

Chris Drongers

Agree entirely. The switch to renewables is the main are where a government can accelerate or slow a significant change.
Most other issues are either obvious (including Cross River Rail as Brisbane will stall without it) or basically irresolvable – blue collar miners will always need help as mines exhaust their resource or run out of markets (coal, watch China and India source their coal domestically before reducing consumption), regional areas will always earn less than big urban ones and carry fewer votes, rural development will always mean environmental losses.

nakedChimp

paragraph 10:
“What will likely happen in its stead is the creation of a third government-owned generation company”
‘in its stead’ => ‘instead’

Hettie

Shades of meaning.

nakedChimp

Sorry, non-native English speaker – haven’t seen that combination of words before (google didn’t gave me ‘real’ hits either when I checked), so assumed typo – now learned something new 😉

Hettie

Your English is very good. “Stead” is an old word for house or building, place. Instead is a contraction of “in its stead” which is a bit archaic, but not incorrect.
You will have heard “homestead?” Also “steading” which is also archaic, a small farm holding. Its a fascinating language.

Roger Brown

I am with Origin Power , they have offered a 12% discount with my electrical account . I have a 51 cents kWh feed back to grid till 2028 🙂 Will this affect my contract ?

Hettie

Lucky you. No harm asking about the contract. It is way too good a FIT to jeopardise.. And 12% off what? Look carefully at your power bill. Find the daily supply charge, the per kwh charge, the record of feed in. Do your sums. And make your own decisions.

rob

SOLAR BOY SEEMS TO HAVE DELETED HIS MANY VIOLENT COMMENTS…….. come visit me some day……Daddy will show you a good time!!!!!!!!!!!!
Love Rob @solarboy and Hettie

Robert Comerford

Let us hope this is the end of the Adani nonsense. Australia outsourcing its massive air pollution to other countries needs to stop.
When even ABC TV was guilty of spewing out the ‘thousands of jobs’ lie, if Labor has come through despite that biased reporting from all media outlets, that will be a well done job.

RobertO

Hi Robert Comerford, There will be some jobs if the Adani goes ahead (I hope not). Adani said 1456 FTE for 60,000 tons/annum, (26 people per 1000 tons in the EPA court case) but they have reduced it to 25,000 tons/annum so maybe 650 FTE. The their web site claims automation from pit to the port so COALition must be counting everybody that has anything to do with the mine i.e. you sell lunch to a truck driver that is delivering mail to the Adani mine worker (or even to his wife if he has one). My mate Mattie Canavan is so full of rubbish, claimed 17,000 jobs for Adani in Channel 7 news, he keep the job hopes alive of all the unemployed in rural QLD, I wonder if they realise they have been conned by Mattie. Solar in Qld will have more jobs both in construction and ongoing maintenance.